Ding! Ding! Ding!
(Ang bato!) The correct answer to ‘Who said that?’ is. . .Vilma Santos, ‘Star for All Seasons’ and newly-elected governor of Batangas. That was her answer when asked to comment on Nora Aunor’s alleged marriage to another woman. Antares gets the prize for answering first.
On the question of Nora vs Vilma, I’ve always been a Vilmanian. I got my hair pulled for it when I was 4, because my yaya was a Noranian. However I did not report this child abuse to my parents, because I found that I could make my yaya cry any time I wanted, simply by insulting Nora. She took her movie star preferences so much more personally than I did. My favorite Vilma Santos movies are Relasyon, Haplos, Sister Stella L, Pagputi ng Uwak, Pag-itim ng Tagak (which she also produced—I saw in on TV as a kid and remember only fragments, but I liked it), and Burlesk Queen. These last two were directed by Celso Ad. Castillo, who made both works of genius and trash.
I saw Burlesk Queen a year or two ago on the Viva cable channel. It’s brilliant, and I’m glad to try out this adjective: Felliniesque. Friends who saw it in its integral form note how Castillo was a master at having so much going on at the same time. Unfortunately the version shown on the Viva channel was heavily truncated, the sound was barely audible, and the climactic dance sequence of which I’d heard so much had been cut out altogether. I remember that there was a huge controversy over Burlesk Queen—it swept the awards at the Metro Manila Filmfest, then the awards were recalled. Does anyone know if a good print exists?
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
May 28th, 2007 at 13:35
Not anymore. Like most great Filipino films made in the 70s and yet they were given short shrift, it was said that some total idiot had taken hold of the Burlesk master reel and then stored it in a bathroom. No thanks to heavy moisture, the whole reel disintegrated into vinegar.